East Angel Cross Country had a busy start to the Labor Day weekend, spread across 13 races at three different meets.

On Friday, the Open Girls and Open Boys 2-mile races at the Washington Park Invite would kick things off as temperatures hovered near 90 degrees. The Girls Team would race to a 6^th place finish led by the impressive debut performance of freshman Maya Nussbaumer who finished 12^th with a time of 15:36. Sophomore Teddy Hickenlooper opened his season with a 27^th place finish in 13:09 to lead the boys to an 8^th place finish.

In the Varsity Girls 5K at Wash Park, the all 9^th grader team of Isabella Garcia, Claire Ely, Maya Winfield, Charlie Hite, and Clara Lonrenzo scored a 10^th place team finish overall against their more experienced competition. The boys, similarly depleted of varsity experience at other races, were led by freshman Cyrus Jenkins-Nieto who finished 78^th in 21:18.

Meanwhile, things were also getting started at the Arapahoe Warrior Invitational under similarly sultry conditions. There, things kicked off with the Boys Frosh/Soph race. Showing the same team leading form as the week prior, sophomore Will Daley ran to a 13^th place finish in 18:41. Will was backed up by freshmen Ian Trautwein (19:11, 21^st) and Xander Pacini (19:33, 26^th) and sophomore Riley Nickols (19:34, 28^th) for a 6^th place finish of 25 teams. The Frosh/Soph Girls finished 2nd of 25 teams! The tight Angel pack included freshman Lilia Scudamore (17^th, 22:24), sophomore Elena Thoman (19^th, 22:41), freshmen Grace Burnett (22^nd, 22:47) and Christina Doolan (23^rd, 22:48), sophomore Maisie Moskowitz (26^th, 22:51) and freshman Grace O’Meara (27^th, 22:52). With most runners divided across other meets and races, the Angels ran only a handful of runners in the other races at Arapahoe. Notable performances came from a pair of East juniors; Lilly Cory (21:59) and Emily Turner (22:06) rolled over the trails and through the creek crossings at deKoevend Park in the fastest times for East girls for the day.

On Saturday morning, most of Denver East’s Varsity girls and boys took an early bus to Waneka Lake Park for the very competitive Centaurus Invitational. The Girls ran to a 7^th place finish of 23 teams, finishing only behind teams ranked in the top-10 in the State in their respective divisions. Senior Laurel Kruger led the Angels with a 21^st place finish in 20:10. Freshman AlanaMarie Barros finished in 20:50 for 37^th, followed by a group of Angels who ran together for most of the 5K: senior Nell Salzman (21:17, 46^th), junior Lilly Cory (21:20, 51^st), sophomore Anna Lucy Buddenhagen (21:25, 53^rd) and freshman Abigael Howard (21:42, 60^th). For the boys, senior Harrison Scudamore raced to a second place finish in 15:50, behind only the top ranked runner in Colorado. Sophomore Asher Hoyt (17:08, 16^th) was the top underclassmen in the race. Senior Jackson Adams (18:41, 67^th) and sophomore Elijah Bruggeman (19:01, 81^st) also had solid races and the Angel Boys finished 10^th of 23 teams.

This coming week two of the most competitive meets of the Colorado invitational season fall on the same weekend: the Liberty Bell Invitational hosted by Heritage High School in Littleton on Friday and the St. Vrain Invitational hosted by Lyons High School on Saturday. Expect fast times and stiff competition.

NOTE: You can see and share photos from all these meets at  https://eastcrosscountry.shutterfly.com (if you are not a member, request to join!)